How are we going to get out of this? We have an army of undead all around and god knows where we are! I know that there is little to no chance of us surviving, even if we make it through this challenge, there will just be another waiting for us. And while the enemy grows with each fallen survivor our numbers only grow smaller, and our resources dwindle more and more. What’s the point in fighting, if there’s no hope of victory?

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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Haven Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The path
we chose was safe, for the most part. There was one road that made me worry
however. It wasn’t a main road like the ones we travelled in the beginning, but
it was large enough and was well-travelled enough to make me worry about what
we would find there. And I wasn’t the only one, Jacobs and Connor came to me
before we left to make sure this was our best chance. There was a safer road we
could have travelled, but we would run out of fuel before we made it. This
would mean if we ran into trouble we would be too far from the van to make an
easy escape, and if we didn’t find any fuel we would have to abandon the
vehicle entirely. This didn’t stop me from second guessing myself though, the
entire trip I was on edge, but I guess everyone was. My hands were white and
sweaty with anxiety when we turning carefully onto the road that made me so
afraid.

There
were two possible scenarios that would mean trouble, the first is that
abandoned cars would form a roadblock. We almost constantly see empty cars, but
most of them are on the side of the road, or at least avoidable. But in heavy
traffic when a few cars stop they all do, leading to massive obstacles like we’d
seen before. We would have to leave the van, possibly abandon it completely,
and if we did who knows if we would find anything road-worthy even if we
searched for days. The other scenario is an encounter with the dead, whose
threats can go unsaid. But if we found both waiting for us, we could find
ourselves exposed, surrounded, and with no hope of escape. It was lucky then,
that we only found one.

From
what I could see of the car pile-up a smaller car lost control, Malcolm
suggested the driver had an infected passenger judging by the blood and the way
the passenger side window was smashed. What caused the rest of the carnage was
a truck, about the same size as ours that ploughed into the other cars and
flipped over. From there it just piled up, people weren’t concerned with speed
limits and road safety during an apocalypse, and if one car stops they all do.
We stopped a kilometre from the blockage and Connor scouted about, making noise
with a metal pole to see if any of the dead were still moving. After a few
minutes of silence we drove up and stopped in front of it.

“There’s
no way through,” Connor stated grimly

“How far
away are we?” I asked Lindsey, keeping my voice calm

“Not
far,” she answered in a similar tone, “we could walk and bring the petrol back
in about an hour or two.” I thought about it for a moment, leaving the van
behind made us more vulnerable, but I doubted we had enough fuel left to go around.
I turned to Jacobs, “what do you think?”

“It’s
risky,” she conceded, but she had already made up her mind, “but we have no
other choice”

“One of
us should stay here,”

“You go,”
she nodded at me, “take Lindsey and two others.” I turned to the others who
were all hoping out of the van, “Connor” he nodded and walked over to the van “and”-
I stopped myself, my mouth had betrayed me, I was about to say Brooke.

This was
exactly the time I’d choose her, trust her to have my back. But I had to remind
myself that she was gone now, I had to place my trust in someone else. Monica
and Malcolm were strong, they knew what they were doing and I trusted their
judgment, but that was also a reason why they should stay here. I didn’t fully
trust this resistance yet, although I did trust Jacobs’ decisions. I also had
to consider the other reason for our trip, to find Lindsey’s father, I knew who
to pick, “Emma.” Her head darted up, surprised, “really?”

“Yeah,”
I said, doubting my decision, “but you don’t get a gun, you’re there to help
carry stuff, and as an extra set of eyes. And don’t wander of alone, got it?”
She kept nodding enthusiastically as I spoke, making me doubt my choice even
more. I wondered whether she was eager to be trusted, or happy to be helpful.
Connor and Jacobs gave me odd looks, and I tried to convey confidence as I
looked back. From their reactions I doubted it worked. We all grabbed half-empty
backpacks from the van, and took half the ammo and weapons we had left, which
still wasn’t much. Then we left, once again splitting our group in half and
praying that we were making the right choice.

…

Lindsey
was right in the end, it took us about half an hour to get to her father’s
house, but I stopped them as we entered the court it was on. “Once we’re inside
we’ll be more vulnerable,” I explained quietly, “Connor, you and Emma head
inside and see what you can find, Lindsey and I will do a quick sweep in the
other house and see what’s there.” I nodded at them to leave, then turned to
Lindsey, “don’t stop to gather anything, unless its fuel,” I quickly added, “just
keep an eye for the dead… or the living” unfortunately in these situations they
can be just as dangerous.

The part
of the suburb was one of the nicer ones, big houses with rich interiors, a lot
of good it did them now. As much as I tried to focus I did begin to wonder what
it would have been like to live in one of these. Settle down with Jade and a
few kids. We had just bought a house before all this but it was nothing
compared to these ones. But I guess all those dreams meant nothing know, all my
dreams involved both of us surviving. And to do that I had to get this done.

There
was no spare fuel in any of the houses, and I was able to enter a third one
when I heard a scream come from Lindsey’s Father’s house, it sounded like Emma,
and it was cut off quickly. From the other side of the street I saw Lindsey
break into a sprint, she was faster than I gave her credit for, I did the same
a second later. We both burst through the door, expecting the worst, guns
drawn. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but for Lindsey I assumed it was
the worst thing imaginable, to turn a corner and find her father lying on the
floor, his head smashed in.